Man Gets 3 Years For South Side Crash That Killed Passenger

CHICAGO (CBS) — A man has been sentenced to three years in prison for smoking marijuana before a crash that killed in his passenger on the South Side in 2013.

Wallace Faust, 20, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of aggravated DUI in an accident causing death before Judge Thomas J. Byrne, according to Cook County court records.

About 11:20 p.m. Dec. 28, 2013, witnesses saw Faust and his cousin driving separate cars at a high rate of speed on South Chicago Avenue, authorities said at the time.

The vehicles sped through green lights at 78th and 79th streets, then disobeyed a red light at 81st Street.

The cousins attempted to pass a westbound vehicle, but when Faust swerved the 2013 Hyundai Sonata he was driving he lost control and crashed into a light pole, authorities said.

A passenger in the Sonanta, 18-year-old Darius Dudley, was ejected from the car and landed in the street.

Dudley, of the 7700 block of South Greenwood Avenue, died at Stroger Hospital about two hours later, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

A witness saw Faust sitting in the driver’s seat bleeding from his mouth, authorities said. Another witness gave Faust tissue for his mouth.

After being released from the hospital, officers found a small plastic bag containing “several burnt up blunts,” prosecutors said. A DUI test performed at the hospital tested positive for THC and Faust admitted to smoking cannabis earlier in the day.

Faust, of the 7600 block of South Greenwood Avenue, was a senior at Kenwood Academy High School at the time of the crash.

Judge Byrne sentenced Faust to three years in prison Thursday, according to court records. He was booked into the Stateville Correctional Center to begin serving his sentence Friday.

He will receive credit for 891 days served in the Cook County Jail, and must serve one year of supervised release, according to court records.